Black Bread Pudding with Apples
From Beyond the North Wind by Darra Goldstein
Darra adapted this recipe from one of Sofia Tolstoy’s (you can find a version of Sofia’s book here) which Darra describes as a ‘frugal apple charlotte’. Don’t be fooled by that description though. It is still incredibly moorish as indeed are all of the recipes in Darra’s Beyond the North Wind.
You need a good quality rye bread for this recipe or try making your own such as this recipe by Paul Hollywood, adding a couple of teaspoons of coarsely crushed coriander seeds to replicate the flavour of the Borodinsky bread recommended by Darra.
Ingredients
225g/8oz stale rye bread (e.g. coriander scented Borodinsky bread is ideal)
560g/1¼lb Granny Smith apples (about 5)
1 tsp melted butter
Fine dry breadcrumbs (e.g. panko) for the pan
50g/¼ cup (caster) sugar
¼-½ tsp ground cinnamon
100g/½ cup (1 stick) melted butter
Method
Preheat the oven to 180℃/350℉. Remove the bread crusts and cut the bread into 2.5cm/1in chunks. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor and grind to coarse crumbs. You should have about 2 cups (120-150g).
Peel and halve the apples. Remove the cores and cut the apples horizontally into ¼in (about 5-7mm) slices.
Generously grease a 1½ quart charlotte mould (I used a 20cm/8in diameter, deep solid (not springform) cake tin) with the 1 teaspoon butter and dust with fine breadcrumbs. Place one-quarter of the apples in the mould and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the sugar and a little cinnamon. Top with ½ cup (about a quarter) of the black breadcrumbs and pour 2 tablespoons of the melted butter over them. Repeat with the remaining apples, sugar, cinnamon, black breadcrumbs and butter, making four layers in all.
Bake, covered, for 1 hour and 30 minutes, until the apples are soft and the pudding holds its shape. Let it cool for 30 minutes, then place a decorative plate over the top of the mould and invert the pudding onto it. Serve warm (we ate it with cream but vanilla ice cream or custard would also work a treat).
Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com.